164 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



claims are generally enormously in excess of what an 

 impartial arbitrator is likely to allow. 



Mr Davidson refers to a case where the counterclaim 

 of a landlord amounted to i^i200. " I ventured to sug- 

 gest £2^ as a proper sum, and I think ^30 was the 

 award." 



In another Scotch case, the claim of the tenant was 

 £60, and the landlord lodged a counterclaim for £120. 

 Mr Dickie, as arbitrator, "looked upon that ^^120 claim 

 as an attempt pretty much to block the tenant's claim," 

 and only awarded the landlord £2 2s. Some of the 

 items were far-fetched, and some quite fictitious. 



A valuer, with one of the largest practices in Hamp- 

 shire, states that he never knew but one instance in that 

 county in which, a claim having been made under the 

 Act, it was not met by a counterclaim considerably 

 greater. 



Mr Adams says that not one farmer in twenty dare 

 make a claim because he knows a counterclaim will be 

 lodged, whether fair or not. While there is much 

 evidence to the effect that when the reference is com- 

 pleted, the counterclaims are usually cut down to a 

 moderate limit, there can be no doubt that the dread of 

 these altogether disproportionate demands on the part 

 of the landlord has had a most serious effect in deterring 

 tenants from making use of the Act. 



Similar results are attributed to the restrictive cove- 

 narits, generally coupled with penal rents for their breach, 

 which are still found in most agreements to let agricul- 

 tural land. 



Some of these documents, especially in Scotland, are 

 stated by Mr Speir and other witnesses to be expressly 

 designed " to break the Agricultural Holdings Act, and 

 make its working null and void." There are special 

 manuals instructing factors how to frame clauses for 

 leases which set aside various provisions of the Act. 

 These covenants are illegal, but tenants are compelled 

 by the keen competition to sign anything to get a farm. 



A number of such covenants are quoted. One of 

 these ousts compensation for manures by a stipulation 



